Love Will Come Through

Someone dear to me got engaged today.
Lady, I'm so happy for you
After all the ups & downs, I pray for you only happiness & His blessings, Ameen...

Love will come through it's just waiting for you


Pix nicked from Isk

Teaser :Jogja

Pulang ke kotamu, ada setangkup haru dalam rindu
Masih seperti dulu
Tiap sudut menyapaku bersahabat penuh selaksa makna
Terhanyut aku akan nostalgi saat kita sering luangkan waktu
Nikmati bersama suasana Jogja
...

Di persimpangan, langkahku terhenti
Ramai kaki lima menjajakan sajian khas berselera
Orang duduk bersila
Musisi jalanan mulai beraksi seiring laraku kehilanganmu
Merintih sendiri, di tengah deru kotamu

Yogyakarta, by KLA Project

Solitude

Attempt at night photography @ Cherating

Arrested Development, HRC, 12 Jan 2011

Ah I admit, I'm not really familiar with Arrested Development (not the TV sitcom ok)- a hip-hop 8 piece ensemble from a diverse background. They have been around for a long time and have won Grammys in the 90s. Check out Everyday People, Mr Wendall and Tennessee and chances are you might have heard one of them without knowing (myself included)

When my bro told me that they were performing 5 days before show day, I had my reservations. Firstly, I'm not really into hip-hop & secondly, I'm not so familiar with their music. If I did a test - I did this before deciding to go to Stereophonics - if I knew 50% of their recent setlist, then I'd go. I'd fail here miserably :-p

Anyway, I defied my theory again, and went anyway because after doing some homework -listened to my bro's CD: 3 Yrs, 5 months & 2 days in The Life Of..(1992) - I thought it was good, and reading that the group promotes respect for women, family, spirituality and responsibility in their lyrics/rapping, I decided I'd go!

Arrested Development performed for the first time in Malaysia (after 19 years in the business!) at Hard Rock Cafe. No need to buy tickets, just pay for the cover charge of RM55 (with drink). It was a small venue - the stage is a bit too small for the 7 of them (not all the 8 members came - 2 singers, 2 MCs (rappers), a drummer, a guitarist & a bassist), especially to accommodate one of the female singers - Montsho Eshe's crazy dancing!

The group kicked off with The Who's Who Are You riff (that CSI Las Vegas theme song) - that made everyone excited! They gamely played along with the audience - getting us grooving to the thundering basslines and the drumbeats. Of course we were highly entertained by Montsho's energetic dancing! They asked us to repeat after them a chorus off 4 Non-Blonde's What's Going On? during a teaser of Everyday People just for fun - and that had the crowd roaring for more!

Altogether they played 24 songs with 1 encore - yes, Everyday People of course!
Here's the setlist (which I got it from here):

Who Are You riff intro
We Rad We Doin It
Motivational
La la la
World is Changing
Fishing for Religion
Dawn of Dreads
Bloody
Ease My Mind
Tennessee
Let Your Voice Be Heard
Inner City
Mama's Always on Stage
Freestyle
Honeymoon Day
Miracles
Mr Wendall
People Everyday (teaser)
I'm Bad
Haters
Raining Revolution
Redemption
I Got Feelin
U

Encore
People Everyday (full version)

Finally, enjoy the pics!


On the right is Montsho's crazy dancing ;)


Hands in the air!

Nom nom nom nom

Ah another post on food!

Brought my mom to Sekinchan Ikan Bakar outlet in Kota Damansara (near to Giant)


This is the outlet at Tmn Setiawangsa. Image taken from here

Again forgot to bring camera. Anyway, we ordered:
Ikan Bakar Siakap (RM 44)
Ikan Bakar Kembung (RM10)
Rice (RM1.00 per plate)
Nasi lemak bungkus (RM2.00 per pack)
Ulam (RM 1.00 per plate)
Keropok (RM 3.00 per plate)
Orange juice (RM3.50)
Lime juice (RM 3.50)
Overall price was RM69.00 for 2 persons

Verdict:
The ikan siakap mom chose was quite big for 2 persons, but that was the smallest size available. The gravy is yummy (nom!), the fish is fresh. But at RM44 mom felt it was too expensive (She told me the fish of that size would cost around RM17, so the grilling+ sambal gravy making costs another RM27 then)

If you could tolerate waiting, then it should be fine, as the waiting was quite long, we ended up taking the nasi lemak & keropok as we were getting hungry. But then again, there's a notice there saying waiting could be up to 45 minutes, so be warned!

It is a self service restaurant, i.e. you only order drinks, then you choose the seafood at the counter, and take your own rice/nasi lemak/keropok/ulam/soup as you please. They will calculate it according to your helpings.

Note: Nom is a tribute to Cookie Monster's nom nom nom sound when he devours his cookies. Nom was beaten as Word of the Year 2010 by app (reference to iPhone / smartphone apps).
Read it here

Of tolerance and salmon

Today I realized a beautiful thing.

I hung around with Iris (met her at Placebo's gig & made friends with her) the whole day. Went lunching (meatballs! - ahh reminds me of Liz, another sweet gig mate) and Ikea-ing, then back to her apartment for swimming.

Then I realised it was time for Maghrib. Iris being a Non-Muslim, I admit, I panicked a bit on where to perform my solat. But then I just asked her if she knew where is the direction of sunset (West), then she showed me. (I have no fancy handphone). I explained to her that I needed to perform my solat at her place, she said go ahead, no problem. She was blasting Radiohead on the stereo (one of our fave bands), I apologized & asked her if she could turn down the volume a bit, and she did without any hesitation. So I performed solat in her bedroom.

I was deeply touched by her act of tolerance & understanding.

Then it was time for dinner. She took me to a happening place - Sunway Giza - it's actually near to Giant Kota Damansara. We decided to eat at Ichiban Boshi (a Japanese restaurant). But before deciding that, concerned on my needs for Halal food, she went to ask the restaurant (I didn't ask her to). She was told it is pork free, the meat is halal, but they serve alcoholic drinks - and asked me if I'm OK with it. Again I was deeply touched by her act of concern.

It made me stop to think - we should be more understanding and try to accommodate to each others' needs. I'm definitely touched & proud of Iris.

Ahh done with the serious talk, let's go to the trivia part ;-)

As I've mentioned, we had dinner at Ichiban Boshi. (Ichiban means number one btw) There was a whole lot of menu, I was spoilt for choice. I think I took 15 minutes to decide on what to eat. Because I felt like eating salmon, I chose the salmon tataki or half grilled salmon with special sauce. I chose that from salmon capriocci (spelling?) or raw salmon with spicy sauce because the waitress told me that the tataki option had more salmon portion. Salmon tataki costs RM12.90 (ala carte), so I chose that with rice set (rice, miso soup & fruits) which costs another RM 5.00
Iris had the Business set at RM22.90 (which comes with Salmon sashimi or raw salmon, grilled mackerel, tofu, chawanmushi, tempura, rice & fruits).

When my salmon came, I was disappointed with the very tiny portion. I walloped everything in less than 5 minutes. Too bad I didn't bring my camera to take the pix.
But Iris' set was generous - so I walloped her tofu hehe...


This is the Executive Meal set, image taken from here

So lesson learnt at Ichiban Boshi: Opt for Set menu instead for big eaters like me ;-)
I later wrote in the survey form to add more salmon portion. In fact, my survey form was full of salmon comments lol! :-p

Oh, and while we were at Sunway Giza, I discovered Fullhouse Lifestyle Store & Cafe, which Mas had mentioned to me before and wanted us all to eat there. Definitely we'll go there next. It's so full of cuteness!


Fullhouse images taken from here

2011

..started with eating activities (one of my favourite pastimes!)

We initially planned to go to PD for our eating endeavours, but changed our plan to avoid the New Year crowd

We started with lunch at Wong Solo, Bangi - a sort of ritual place for us ;-)
What else if not for Ayam Penyet set?

After a bit of rest, we headed out to Sg Pelek, Bagan Lalang for seafood dinner, following Zu's suggestion. Thanks Zu! :) Luckily we set out early, after Asar, as the crowd was really big there. People coming in later were told they had to wait until 10.45 pm to have their orders ready.

We had udang masam manis, ketam sambal, sotong goreng tepung, ikan siakap bakar and kerang bakar. All are superb, we wiped clean everything! And it all costs us RM129 for 4 persons. Not bad :)

However, please bear with the drinks -the fresh orange was too diluted. And there was a confusion when we ordered new drinks - they never came - we had to cancel it in the end.

The stall we went to is Wak Lan Restoran Bayu Malam. To go there, just follow the direction to Golden Palm Tree Resort, Bagan Lalang. Thanks to Zairul for the recommendation! (Although there was no alas meja biru bunga2 anymore :-p)

Gah! There's a story behind the resort though - I'll tell you here - we just wanted to check out the hotel and get some brochures. As we were passing the security post, a Mak Guard stopped us, asking if we were staying there - we said no - we just wanted to check the place out. Then a Pak Guard stopped us to check our bags! (huh?). We reiterated ourselves again - then he said that the resort is closed for visitors for 2 days, only for hotel guests- we were not allowed to go in and the resort had already ran out of brochures. He was giving all sorts of excuses to prevent us from going in there.

Post script Note: I checked out their website later - they are having a soft opening, and the resort looks like a 5-star resort (sort of like the 7-star Palm Islands of Dubai). So probably that's why they were chasing us away? But it could have been done in a subtler/more respectful way.

Anyway, here are the pix, courtesy of Liza :)


Pix taken from here


Ketam masak sambal


Ikan siakap bakar


Sotong goreng tepung


Kerang bakar